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Review by ke4pym 
Posted: 1.7 years ago
member for 4 years, 2082 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Charlotte,Mecklenburg,NC
 $18 per month (12 month contract)
 about 8 days
 "Very inexpensive if you order the yearly plan."
 "Took 3 days to setup back end services."
 "Price and call quality seem to be right"
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Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Ordered Packet8 on a referral from my father. He scored a $30 Amazon gift card. 8x8 was running a deal on a free (after rebate) Uniden VoIP base and cordless handset. You can add a total of 10 handsets to the base.
The set is ok. It has some features I'm going to miss in my departing Siemens Gigaset. The base has no headphone/mic jack. If you're on speaker phone it won't hang up when the call ends and the handsets use proprietary battery packs. My Gigasets used AA form factor NiMH batteries that I could get for $5. Find a battery pack that cheap.
You plug the base into your switch. It has a port that you can plug your analog phones into as well. Other ports include a LAN (if you use the device as a firewall) and power ports. I chose to use my existing m0n0wall firewall's DMZ port (on a Soekris 4801 integrated PC) for my setup.
I got the phone the following Monday and it took tech support 3 days to reconfigure their back end so I could have a registration number to activate my account with. After that was done I made a few calls. I am happy with the call quality in general. The speaker phone on the base has very good call quality and the handsets are clear and free of interference.
The website is a little clunky. Typical PeopleSoft based interface. I've not found a way to listen to my voicemails online, but that's not a big deal. I do hate having to remember to dial a 800 number to remote-check my voicemails. With Vonage I was able to just dial my number and press * and I'd be taken into the VM system. I also don't like the fact that I can't use 7 digital dialing because my market has a area code overlay.
Caller ID name and number delivery work very well. I especially like the option to tell call waiting callers I'm busy or hang on or whatever by pressing a button. I chose the $199 yearly unlimited plan. It looks like they billed the plan and all fees/taxes for the year. After doing some fast math, it works out to $18 a month. Works for me.
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Packet8
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Voicemail is a snap